Members of the Cockcroft Institute have once again discovered the intergalactic festival of music, science, arts and exploration of space that is Bluedot.

Returning for a third year, the team from the Cockcroft Institute involving staff and students from the CI universities Manchester and Liverpool, as well as from STFC’s ASTeC introduced their new Sensing the Invisible exhibit.

The stand invited festival goers to get hands-on with a multi-sensory experience that included a virtual reality tour of the VELA particle accelerator, experiments that explore resonances, and more.

A centre piece to the event was Tactile Collider’s particle accelerator model, CASSIE (Conceptual Accelerator Setup Supporting Inclusive Education). Some visitors donned blindfolds as they explored physics concepts using only touch and hearing.

The key to the success of the event was the many Cockcroft volunteers who brought science to life for audiences of all ages. PhD candidate and AVA Fellow Bianca Veglia from the QUASAR Group said “It was a really nice opportunity to talk to people about our research”.